Ronald Reagan: A Graphic Biography

September 8, 2007 6:09 PM

Ronald Reagan: A Graphic Biography From the writers of Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography. [via]
posted by PostIronyIsNotaMyth (22 comments total)

Ugh, why did this have to be so cartoony. It's like every page is part of a graphical slapstick routine. The end is cheesey.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 6:55 PM on September 8, 2007

Ya know ... I don't have many memories of the 80's. But someone close assures me that I spent a great deal of time walking up to total strangers, grabbing them by the lapels, and screaming: "No, really, who won the election???"

.
posted by RavinDave at 7:14 PM on September 8, 2007

I'm not sure...perhaps the fact that it is a comic.
Snark, snark. It's a graphical novel and they can come in more, uh, adult styles. Like the Malcolm X novel.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 7:21 PM on September 8, 2007

Wait, where's St. Ronnie's halo?

Ah, fuck it, I know there are a plethora of Reagan-haters here, but honestly, wouldn't you prefer him to Chimpy McPresident?
posted by orthogonality at 7:35 PM on September 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

Reagan or Bush, orthogonality?

I think I might be sick.
posted by humannaire at 7:52 PM on September 8, 2007

Ah, fuck it, I know there are a plethora of Reagan-haters here, but honestly, wouldn't you prefer him to Chimpy McPresident?

hell, yes - and i despised reagan
posted by pyramid termite at 8:33 PM on September 8, 2007

The ending is "cheesy" for stylistic reasons. In the last few panels, the narrator of the comic has left, along with North and all of his other handlers. Reagan, as a character in his own biography, is saying goodbye to the audience (the readers of this comic) in his own words and in his own style.
posted by sleslie at 8:41 PM on September 8, 2007

Jesus Christ, it's 100 fucking pages long! I could barely stomach this garbage for 20. Is there a punchline? It seems like it is leading up to some kind of fantastic undercutting satire, but it just... keeps... going...

I barely remember Reagan, having been born in 1983. I knew he existed, to some extent, but of course I had no idea why the hell anyone cared about this guy on the TV. I believe that's how I learned the word President, though; the guy on TV that all of the adults inexplicably care about. I still experience some profound disconnection from politics, I think. Watching W spluttering through a rare press conference, or whatever, I think: This jerk runs the country (into the ground, so far), but, inexplicably, I don't care. So I guess I am basically what is wrong with America.
posted by synaesthetichaze at 8:49 PM on September 8, 2007

I was sick with some weird flu the day Reagan got shot. I was on like twenty different kindsa cold medicines watching TV with a half dozen blankets wrapped around me and my head felt like one big bowl of snot.

All the sudden the cartoon I was watching got interrupted by a news bulletin and I suddenly found myself at a ringside seat of adult-inspired lunacy. They musta replayed in slow motion the one camera footage they had of Reagan getting shot like two hundred and eighty-seven times that day. Over and over and over and over. Somebody new would come on camera to be interviewed and the news guy'd be like, "have you seen this yet? Let's play that again."

I remember being all wide-eyed and my mouth was stuck in the shape of an O for like two hours.

This was better than Wile E Coyote getting hit repeatedly with a hammer. Some old coot in a suit kinda went limp and a half dozen guys wearing sunglasses threw him in the car and drove off while another dozen or so guys dogpiled some crazy dude I never got a chance to see. It was like football on a street corner.

That was one of the best days of my life. =) I love TV.
posted by ZachsMind at 8:58 PM on September 8, 2007

Jesus Christ the formatting sucks. They use these long panels, and then take up like 200px on the top and bottom of the screen. Gah.

(and check out the bottom of page 31. The anti-communist stuff in this comic is rather disturbing, or rather, the un-critical portrait of Reagan's zeal in rooting 'em out.)
posted by delmoi at 9:12 PM on September 8, 2007

The second section is much more interesting then the first.
posted by delmoi at 9:26 PM on September 8, 2007

Jesus Christ, it's 100 fucking pages long! I could barely stomach this garbage for 20. Is there a punchline?

yes - he dies, goes up before the gates of heaven and discovers that mao tse tung, jerry garcia and bella abzug have replaced st peter

reagan looks at them with wonder - "this is a joke, isn't it?"

and then - oh shit - i forgot the punchline ...
posted by pyramid termite at 9:39 PM on September 8, 2007

Jesus Christ the formatting sucks. They use these long panels, and then take up like 200px on the top and bottom of the screen. Gah.

Welcome to the horrible design that is Slate. I really have stopped visiting as often since their redesign.
posted by boubelium at 9:41 PM on September 8, 2007

but honestly, wouldn't you prefer him to Chimpy McPresident?

No difference. If this were a McDonald's we're dealing with the same grease-stained farting employees.
posted by Peter H at 9:51 PM on September 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

"...I know there are a plethora of Reagan-haters here...."

And I am one of them.

Reagan is one of the most over-rated, smarmy, chincy-assed, lying pricks to ever befoul the Oval Office.
posted by rougy at 10:24 PM on September 8, 2007 [2 favorites]

It's a slightly less horrible experience to read it this way.
posted by interrobang at 11:35 PM on September 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

Reagan was a piece of shit.
posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 3:54 AM on September 9, 2007

walking up to total strangers, grabbing them by the lapels, and screaming: "No, really, who won the election???"

The last time this anarchist brought himself to vote was a futile attempt to stave off the horrible specter of President Reagan. But I wasn't as surprised as you, because I remembered when he was elected governor of California. That was unbelievable. The presidency was just a typical Hollywood remake.

I know there are a plethora of Reagan-haters here

Damn right, and I'm glad to see so many of my comrades showing up in this thread!
posted by languagehat at 5:49 AM on September 9, 2007

The self-righteous spasm of Reagan-worship that followed his death a few years ago was part of what convinced me how truly f-ed we are in this country.
posted by mmahaffie at 6:24 AM on September 9, 2007

Ah, fuck it, I know there are a plethora of Reagan-haters here, but honestly, wouldn't you prefer him to Chimpy McPresident?

Reagan or Bush?

Just fucking shoot me now. The fact that we did choose these two freedom-hating mouth breathers is shameful.

The working- and middle-class in this country have been fucked in the ass (not just simply benignly ignored) ever since King Ronnie and his minions started the welfare-queen, union-busting, supply-side believing, corporation-fellating lunatic asylum we know as the modern Republican Party.

The fact that a significant portion of our population worships at the feet of two "men" who hate so many Americans says alot- none of it good.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 7:05 AM on September 9, 2007

The working- and middle-class in this country have been fucked in the ass

and i am starting to conclude, from recent personal observation in real life, that a good proportion of them actually learn to like it, as long as there's a bit of money in it for them

in fact, they'll cozy right up and ask for more

some americans LIKE abusive relationships and WANT them

i can't think of any other explanation for what i'm seeing, although motivating people with fear seems to be very popular today - and i'm talking job loss, not terrorism
posted by pyramid termite at 7:10 AM on September 9, 2007

I'm trying to remember what comic once said that the Reagan Library would house a shelf of Reader's Digest Condensed Books and a couple of TV guides.
posted by gimonca at 1:08 PM on September 9, 2007